Calendar of social media, tech & marketing events: February 2014

Ev Williams, co-founder of Twitter and Medium, at last year’s Launch Festival (Photo by JD Lasica).

Guide to the month’s best conferences & events

It’s only February, but it’s conference crazy season already! I’ll be at Startup Grind, InContext and CMX Summit just this week.

Among other notable events on tap: Social Media Strategies Summit, the Lift Conference, RootsTech, the Crunchies, Strata, Women 2.0 PITCH, Wisdom 2.0, Inbound Marketing Philadelphia and the Launch Festival, the best startup conference on the planet.

If you can’t attend the event in person, find out the hashtag and follow the goings-on on Twitter.

For the full year, see our full Calendar of 2014 social media, tech and marketing conferences. Let us know if we’ve missed anything in the comments. And drop me a line if you’ll be in the neighborhood!

Conference	Date	Place
Startup Grind	Feb. 3-5	Mountain View, Calif.
Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. The goal is to build a connected network of vibrant startup communities to help fuel innovation, economic growth and prosperity at the local level.
Social Media Strategies Summit	Feb. 4-6	Las Vegas
Whether your organization is a start-up or a large enterprise, Social Media Strategies Summit will provide you with relevant case study examples, interactive workshops and engaging sessions to boost your social media marketing efforts and reach your company’s business goals. At SMSS, you’ll learn how to effectively leverage your company’s social media presence, create meaningful content for marketing and maximize your lead potential. The Las Vegas summit will provide attendees with emerging strategies, the latest social tools and insights from successful social media marketing campaigns executed by leading brands. Other Social Media Strategies Summits are scheduled throughout the year in Chicago, New York and Amsterdam.
Front End of Innovation	Feb. 4-6	Munich, Germany
In 2007, FEI EMEA launched in Munich as the first event of its kind. This year, Front End of Innovation immerses attendees in shared experiences: culture safaris, experiential adventures, collaborative workshops, innovation field trips, executive business cases, and keynotes with the end goal of emerging even stronger as collaborators.
InContext	Feb. 5	San Francisco
InContext is a half-day event that will tackle such subjects as what contextual OS’s have to offer to Application & Service Developers, Content Publishers and Device & Peripheral Manufacturers.
Lift Conference	Feb. 5-7	Geneva, Switzerland
Lift Conference is one of Europe’s key events about innovation and digital technologies. It features a special blend of inspiring speeches by some of the world’s best speakers, truly interactive workshops, exhibitions of interactive media projects and prototypes to play with … and the legendary fondue.
CMX Summit	Feb. 6	San Francisco
CMX Summit is a new event bringing together the world’s greatest community minds to share unique perspectives, experiences and ideas all around community. CMX Summit will not focus on social media marketing but on building, managing and maintaining thriving online communities.
Media That Matters	Feb. 6-7	Washington, DC
Media That Matters (not to be confused with the long-running Media That Matters) is an annual conference presented by the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University. It is designed for established and aspiring filmmakers, nonprofit communication leaders, funders and students who want to learn and share cutting-edge practices to make their media matter.
RootsTech	Feb. 6-8	Salt Lake City, Utah
RootsTech is a global family history event where people of all ages learn to discover and share their family stories and connections through technology. At RootsTech, there is something for you, regardless of your experience in family history or your skill in technology.
Crunchies Awards	Feb. 10	San Francisco
The 7th Annual Crunchies Awards recognizes and celebrates the most compelling startups, Internet and technology innovations of the year. Snapchat, Fab and Uber were among last year’s winners.
Enterprise 2.0 Summit	Feb. 10-12	Paris
The Enterprise 2.0 Summit discusses the lessons learned and practical insights for enhancing and transforming the organization with and by social technology. For 2014 the key topic is about “Getting Social Enterprise Ready,” which includes the discussion on mastering the adoption of technology and the adaptation of the organization as well as realizing new business value generation by acting more collaboratively in a holistic way.
SES Conference & Expo	Feb. 10-13	London
SES Conference & Expo is a leading global event series about search and social marketing. Focusing on tactics and best practices, SES events bring together thought leaders and industry experts — from private consultants to representatives from the search engines themselves — to provide you with the skills to succeed in online marketing. Other SES events include SES San Francisco Aug. 11-14 and SES Chicago Nov. 3-6 — both rebranded as ClickZ Live.
Strata Conference	Feb. 11-13	Santa Clara, Calif.
Join O’Reilly’s Strata Conference to see the future of big data as well as the analytics, architectures, techniques and tools you need to put it to work for your business, startup or organization.
Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit	Feb. 11-13	San Francisco
Join the Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit to better understand how to drive revenues with an integrated mobile strategy. MMSS will expose you to the different strategies these brands have already set in motion, leaving you with actionable insights and a framework to establish a case for mobile at your organization, as well as build upon existing mobile strategies. The goal is for you to leave MMSS with invaluable information and cutting-edge tools necessary to keep your organization competitive in a rapidly evolving mobile industry.
The Social Conference	Feb. 13	Amsterdam
The Social Conference focuses on the impact and future of social media in the business community. The conference inspires participants to strengthen their business by harnessing the power of the social Web. It offers a look at the strategies of corporate experts and the research of leading academics.
Venture Summit Silicon Valley	Feb. 13	San Mateo, Calif.
Venture Summit Silicon Valley 2014 is an annual gathering of the brightest minds and top entrepreneurs, investors and corporate players in the Global Silicon Valley. This one-day event treats attendees to a high-level debate and discourse on top trends and opportunities in the booming digital media and entertainment and on-demand and cloud computing sectors.
Women 2.0 PITCH Conference	Feb. 13-14	San Francisco
Women 2.0 is all about giving founders, investors and tech company leaders the information and connections they need to thrive in the new economy.
Wisdom 2.0	Feb. 14-17	San Francisco
Wisdom 2.0 addresses the great challenge of our age: to not only live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work and useful to the world. Through speakers, meet-ups and workshops, Wisdom 2.0 strives to bring this conversation to the world in an accessible, innovative and inclusive way.
CSCW	Feb. 15-19	Baltimore
ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing is the venue for presenting research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities and networks. Bringing together top researchers and practitioners from academia and industry in the area of social computing, CSCW encompasses both the technical and social challenges encountered when supporting collaboration.
An Event Apart	Feb. 17-19	Atlanta
An Event Apart Atlanta is an intensely educational learning session for passionate practitioners of standards-based Web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart offers 12 speakers and sessions, plus an optional day-long workshop on multi-device Web design. Other event locations for 2014 include Seattle (March 31-April 2), Boston (April 28-30), San Diego (May 12-14), Washington, DC (July 21-23), Chicago (Aug. 25-27), Austin (Sept 22-24) and San Francisco (Nov. 17-19).
MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit	Feb. 17-20	Las Vegas
MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2014 is the world’s longest-running research-based email marketing event. You will have a full slate of sessions aimed at overcoming your top email challenges with live optimization, case studies, quick-win clinics, bonus sessions, expert panels and more.
Social Media Week	Feb. 17-21	Various
Social Media Week is a leading media platform and worldwide event with local presence and global reach across five continents, including Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia that aims to provide the best information, ideas and inspiration to help people understand how to achieve more in a hyper-connected world.
Tech Marketing 360	Feb. 18-20	Dana Point, Calif.
Tech Marketing 360 is the only event dedicated to technology marketers. You’ll gain insight from the top thinkers at top companies and be immersed in a community of practice, sharing, teaching and learning that will supercharge not just your skill sets, but your strategic vision.
Inbound Marketing Summit	Feb. 19	Philadelphia
Inbound Marketing Summit is the one event that brings together enterprise chief marketing officers and business leaders, awesome keynotes, expert panels, plus solutions providers and their tools for enterprise marketing, all in a dynamic, community-based setting. Inbound Marketing Summit events take place this year in Kansas City, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, Portland and Boston.
BlogWell	Feb. 19	Dallas
Learn how big brands use social media and hear eight case studies on the social media programs in place at corporations such as Dell, REI, Coldwell Banker, Texas Instruments and others. Besides Dallas, BlogWells are expected to take place this year in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
edSocial Media Summit	Feb. 19	Bethesda, Md.
The edSocial Media Summit offers a one-day, practical application of social media tools in a school environment. Their workshops, held in various locales throughout the year, provides an in-depth, hands-on introduction to social media for school leaders and administrators, complete with an opportunity to create and share content through edSocialMedia’s practice lab site and other social media channels.
Cloud Computing for DoD & Government	Feb. 19-21	Washington, DC
The Fifth Annual Cloud Computing Summit addresses the newest developments in cloud computing in the public sector. As the cloud matures and becomes the accepted industry norm, IDGA will bring together leading experts to speak about the challenges associated with the implementation and maintaining of cloud systems and how to overcome them. It will shed light on best practice to address issues like migrating information to the cloud, data center consolidation, cyber security and more.
Digiday Agency Summit	Feb. 19-21	Palm Springs, Calif.
Digital advertising presents new and greater opportunities for agencies to connect brands to the consumer and build smarter, stronger relationships. As a result, agencies are asking digital questions first: How will this work on mobile? What will be the social component? How can we create worthwhile sponsored content? Agencies are navigating multiple platforms, real-time reactivity, data output and content marketing. The Digiday Agency Summit will highlight real-life examples of agencies answering these digital questions first and successfully building brand connections.
SoCon14	Feb. 22	Kennesaw, Ga.
Since 2007, SoCon has flourished as a must-attend professional networking and unconference event offering an extensive list of breakout sessions to fill a variety of professional needs. Offering insightful takeaways regardless of your industry or skill level and organized into loose-knit “tracks,” SoCon14 offers learning schedules for everyone – from business owners, marketing professionals and digital strategists to CEOs, journalists and non-profiteers – with the freedom to network and attend working sessions outside your professional path.
Launch Festival	Feb. 24-26	San Francisco
The Launch Festival is the best place to launch your startup, raise money and learn about starting a company. Watch venture capitalists judge and fund emerging startups in real time.
Mobile World Congress	Feb. 24-27	Barcelona, Spain
Mobile is creating the next connected device that transforms communication. Mobile World Congress offers a blueprint for the next big innovation, either announced on stage, showcased in the exhibition hall or conceived during one of the thousands of meetings taking place during the week.
Intelligent Content	Feb. 26-28	San Jose, Calif
The sixth annual Intelligent Content Conference is designed to equip you with the knowledge you need to break down organizational and technological barriers preventing you from connecting your content with those who need it. This year’s roster of amazing presenters will showcase examples, standards, methods, strategies and tools needed to help your organization deliver the right information to the right people at the right time in the right language — on any device.
NICAR 2014	Feb. 27-Mar 2	Baltimore
The CAR conference, put on by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, offers something for everyone, from beginners to those on the cutting edge of digital reporting. The event offers everything from the basics on using spreadsheets, databases and online mapping to data science and the latest technological advances. You’ll come away with, story ideas, plenty inspiration and tools to help you overcome typical data hurdles. Learn from the best in the business in panel discussions and during hands-on training sessions. Bypass the budget issues in your newsroom by taking classes in free software. Get a look at what the biggest names in data-driven reporting are using to make a major impact online.
xPotomac	Feb. 28	Washington, DC
xPotomac features the most influential media technologies most likely to impact businesses and marketers in the immediate future. Speakers include Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, authors of “The Age of Context.”
SearchFest	Feb. 28	Portland, Ore.
SearchFest presents multiple informative learning tracks, workshops and panel sessions designed to provide direct insight into the most up-to-date strategies and technological advancements in online search marketing and social marketing. Industry experts and thought leaders from around the country deliver in-depth presentations ranging from basic SEM and social media fundamentals to specific advanced techniques.
Social Enterprise	Unknown
The Social Enterprise conference is one of the world’s leading forums to explore the intersection of business and social impact. The conference is entirely student-run, jointly hosted by students from the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. No date has been announced for the 2014 event.
Social Media For Government Communications	Feb. (no date set)	Washington, DC
The Social Media for Government Communications 2014 is a conference dedicated to the latest advances Web and media technologies in order to engage citizens and increase transparency. The Social Media for Government Communications 2014 brings together state & local government managers, federal analysts, directors, officers, leaders, specialists, administrators, coordinators, advisors, consultants and staff.

JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.